Paleo Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Now that fall is officially here, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to eat as many seasonally flavored foods as possible. I’m such a sucker for the taste of pumpkin, and cloves, and cinnamon, yummmm. Unfortunately, most things that come to mind are sugar-packed desserts, and I’m trying to cut those out of my diet. Don’t you miss those days when you were younger and you could eat all the desserts you wanted to your heart’s content? I never even thought about what I was putting into my body and I was as happy as a clam. I’ve been racking my brain for how I could possibly bring that joy back into my life without worrying about my refined sugar or fat intake.

While I was getting out ingredients for my daily smoothie (while dreaming about the tastes of autumn), I realized that I could combine two of my favorite things! Pumpkin pie and smoothies. And oh, was it a great idea. I used a lot of the same base ingredients that I use for every smoothie of mine – frozen bananas, hemp hearts, almond milk – but I altered the flavor by adding in most of the same ingredients you would use for baking a pumpkin pie. You get all of the flavor, but none of the guilt. What could be better? This smoothie is high in fiber, manganese, magnesium, vitamins A, B6, and E, and even packs in some protein from the hemp hearts.

A sprinkle of nutmeg (or your spice of choice) pulls the whole drink together. This smoothie is so filling that it was all I needed in the middle of my day to tide me over until dinner. I enjoyed mine curled up in a blanket on my back porch, enjoying the fall air while listening to folk music and reading a good book. I’m not telling you what to do but… you certainly won’t be disappointed if you follow in my footsteps.

Kiri Rowan is a freelance photographer, writer, and editor with a BFA in Photography from Syracuse University. For the past seven years she has been fluctuating between a vegetarian and vegan diet, and has been striving to live a Paleo lifestyle for the past three months.

In the pumpkin pie smoothie can I use chia seeds instead of hemp since I do not have any hemp . Do you also have an alternate list for substituting ingredients if you do not have proper ingredients for what the recipe calls for . Thanks